20 August 2007

Small Consolation

Referees' chief Keith Hackett has confirmed that Rob Styles will not officiate in next weekend's Premier League matches after his performance in the game between Liverpool and Chelsea at Anfield yesterday.

Surprise, surprise. By the way, Styles still hasn’t made himself available for comment after refusing to talk to SkySports yesterday.

"Accountability exists and we do expect referees to get big decisions correct," said Hackett, general manager of Professional Game Match Officials Limited. "On this occasion it was wrong and therefore Rob will not be officiating next weekend."

The funny part is where Keith Hackett says accountability exists. If Styles is back after next week’s fixtures, that statement’s even more a laugh than it usually is coming out of a ref’s mouth.

I may still be too angry to make rational comments, but I have never seen a penalty decision so wrong, nor the amount of cover-up and general idiocy following the invisible 2nd yellow Essien supposedly saw. Criminal negligence isn’t fixed by a weekend-long holiday.

Referring is one of the hardest jobs in sports, but having to stand up for your decisions and to criticism comes with the territory. And Styles still hasn’t either apologized or explained his decision. Maybe he and Tim Donaghy can start a support group.

The most recent update to the article on the BBC says that Hackett apologized to Benitez via a message, and Styles should be phoning to do similar.

That apology, coming from Rob Styles, will actually make me feel better. Not 3 points better, but better nonetheless. I want it, in print, that Styles is aware he's a moron, he got an easy call utterly wrong (among other things), and apologizes profusely for that.

Then, and only then, can we discuss him possibly returning to action in the far future.

But damn right, Sven, this will be rectified on the pitch. I tried to say it in the review yesterday, but was too angry to emphasize it enough. Liverpool was impressive, and in Torres, appeared to have that extra quality needed to win close games that were drawn or lost last year.

It wasn't like the game last year at Anfield where Liverpool was lucky in how many players Chelsea had missing. Liverpool was the better team with both sides near full-strength; only Carvalho would have started out of the players they've got injured at the moment. And I cannot wait for the game at Stamford Bridge.

I think we are at the point where video replay is mandatory for penalties. The NFL and NBA have done it and neither of those sports have anything as crucial as a PK within their sports. Nothing ruins the game more than when the ref is the story. I'd rather wait a couple of minutes and stop play than walk around with the feeling I had after that PK yesterday.

As far as Chelsea being "pure," well I always revert to my favorite Drogba video. It's equal to Bush talking about his "Healthy Forest" and "Clean Air" acts.